Unusual 'cauliflower' formations on Mars have provided scientists with the latest clues to ancient life on the red planet.

The strange patterns were spotted by the Spirit rover in 2008 while it was studying a mineral called opaline silica inside Mars's Gusev crater.

Scientists aren't sure what created the shapes, but a pair of researchers have recently claimed clues to their formation could be found on Earth.

Steven Ruff and Jack Farmer of Arizona State University believe the silica might have been shaped by microbes.

Unusual 'cauliflower' formations on Mars have provided scientists with the latest clues to ancient alien life on the red planet. The strange patterns were spotted by the Spirit rover in a mineral called opaline silica found inside Mars's Gusev crater

The Smithsonian reported on their results, which were announced at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December.

The pair suggest the 'cauliflowers' may have been created by past life on the red planet in a similar way to how ancient microbes have shaped Earth's landscape.

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They point to formations in El Tatio, a region in Chile's Atacama desert that has more than 80 geysers.

Like Mars, Chile's Atacama Desert is so dry because it is blocked from moisture on both sides by the Andes mountains and by coastal mountains.

This image, taken by a Mars orbiter, shows layers of rock in a large canyon called Valles Marineris. The area includes outcrops of opaline silica in which the 'cauliflower' formations have been seen

El Tatio's name comes from the Quechua word for oven. It is a geyser field located within the Andes Mountains of northern Chile at 4,320 meters above sea level

HOPES OF FINDING MARTIAN MICROBES TAKE A BLOW

The chances of finding life on the red planet got smaller last month.

Researchers have been drilling in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica in search of microbes, as this is the only place on Earth that resembles the permafrost on Mars.

But after years of work and no signs of life, they believe this is the same outcome other researchers will face when analyzing the northern polar area region of Mars at the Phoenix landing site.

'Some of the coldest and driest permafrost soils on earth are located in the high-elevation McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, but little is known about the permafrost microbial communities other than that microorganisms are present in these valleys,' reads the study published by McGill University in ISME Journal.

'Our results contrast with reports from the lower-elevation Dry Valleys and Arctic permafrost soils where active microbial populations are found, suggesting that the combination of severe cold, aridity, oligotrophy of University Valley permafrost soils severely limit microbial activity and survival.'

At 3,000 feet, the Atacama is 15 million years old and 50 times more arid than California's Death Valley

Scientists use this region as an analog to the Gusev crater, where scientists think geysers once rose from the red planet's surface.

Here, similar cauliflower formations - also known as 'micro-digitate silica protrusions' - have been been spotted.

Other areas with similar cauliflower patterns can be found in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand.

'I don't think there is any way around using modern Earth analogs to test where Martian microbes may be found,' Kurt Konhauser of the University of Alberta told the Smithsonian.

But the researchers may not have a clear answer anytime soon.

Scientists can't be sure whether microbes sculpted the 'cauliflowers' in Chile, and so proving that they did so on Mars could be even harder.

The pair suggest the 'cauliflowers' may have been created by past life on the red planet in a similar way to how ancient microbes have shaped Earth's landscape. They point to formations in El Tatio, a region in Chile's Atacama desert that has more than 80 geysers